Set environment variables with AWS Opsworks

Question

I'm using AWS Opsworks to host my Rails App (Ruby 2.0/Rails 3.2). For assets compilation process, I am using AssetSync to upload the compiled assets automatically on S3. I used to store the credentials as environment variables.

Do you have any idea how can I do this with Chef/Opsworks?

Thanks.

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited May 31 '14 at 14:45

7

I know this is an older post, but I'm posting this in case this helps someone else.

I found the easiest way actually was to use one of Chef's deploy hooks (http://docs.opscode.com/resource_deploy.html#deploy-phases).

Add a directory called 'deploy' at the Rails project root.

In it add a file called before_restart.rb, with the code:

Chef::Log.info("Running deploy/before_restart.rb")

# map the environment_variables node to ENV
node[:deploy].each do |application, deploy|
  deploy[:environment_variables].each do |key, value|
    Chef::Log.info("Setting ENV[#{key}] to #{value}")
    ENV[key] = value
  end
end

When you trigger the OpsWorks deploy, you should be able to see the ENV vars being set in the Rails App Server instance log.

edited May 31 '14 at 14:45

jitter

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answered Feb 22 '14 at 23:53

btsai

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These variables will be available only in the Chef process. Not in my app. – Erem Mar 11 '14 at 13:15
The above process works ok for me in my main Rails serers. But I just ran into the same issue in my own stack, but this time with Joey Aghion's delayed_job custom recipe - even though the variables are being injected at deploy time according to the Chef logs, the delayed job script is not picked them up. So I'm going to try either the application.yml or secrets.yml method. – btsai May 04 '14 at 20:46
As Erem says, in that way you pass variables to Chef, but then you need to handle it to properly make variables available to Rails project. Here I explain how properly do it: https://medium.com/@diego_durante/opsworks-rails-and-environment-variables-30c6a143253c#.696grsgg9 – Diego D Oct 26 '16 at 09:31

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '13 at 16:31

4

I ended up using https://github.com/joeyAghion/opsworks_custom_env. It works pretty well.

answered Oct 19 '13 at 16:31

Erem

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Wish this existed for Apache/Passenger :( – YWCA Hello Nov 13 '14 at 21:32

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 10 '14 at 13:15

2

I used a slightly different approach, using OpsWorks hook to copy JSON to application.yml. you can read more about it here: http://zaman.io/how-to-import-aws-opsworks-json-into-rails-app/

answered Feb 10 '14 at 13:15

Tomaž Zaman

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 01 '14 at 18:56

Another option outside of environment variables is you can generate a file with the variables in it at deploy time.

For example, for a Rails app, the config/secrets.yml is a reasonable place to put these. I created a deploy/before_restart.rb deploy hook with the following content:

def create_secrets(secrets, release_path)
  Chef::Log.info("Creating secrets")
  file_path = ::File.join(release_path, 'config/secrets.yml')
  ::File.open(file_path, 'w') do |f|
    f.write("production:\n")
    secrets.each do |k,v|
      f.write("  #{k}: #{v}\n")
    end
  end
end

node[:deploy].each do |application, deploy|
  create_secrets(deploy[:secrets], release_path)
end

And then in your OpsWorks stack Custom JSON you can add your secrets:

  "deploy": {
    "super_cool_app": {
      "secrets": {
        "some_service_id": "foo",
        "some_password": "bar"
      }
    }

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 05 '14 at 16:53

You can create a deploy folder in the root of your application, create a file before_restart.rb inside it, then in your file run the precompile task

run "cd /srv/www/myapp/current && /usr/local/bin/bundle exec rake assets:precompile"

This file will run on every deployment

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHu8fCp9GR4&list=WL&index=7

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 21 '14 at 23:39

1

This can now be done directly from the AWS Console, on the application configuration, as per documentation : http://docs.aws.amazon.com/opsworks/latest/userguide/workingapps-creating.html#workingapps-creating-environment

answered Aug 21 '14 at 23:39

IanBussieres

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Yes but is not enough! You need to handle it with Chef, to pass variables to Rails environment. Here I explained how to do it: https://medium.com/@diego_durante/opsworks-rails-and-environment-variables-30c6a143253c#.696grsgg9 – Diego D Oct 26 '16 at 09:29
The OP was asking how to set them. Handling them is another subject. – IanBussieres Oct 26 '16 at 19:56

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

I already answered here: AWS OpsWorks Environment variables not working

Is important to understand that from OpsWorks dashboard we can pass all declared environment variables to Chef, then we need to handle these variables with a Chef recipe to let them available to Rails environment.

Here you can find what you are looking for: https://medium.com/@diego_durante/opsworks-rails-and-environment-variables-30c6a143253c#.696grsgg9

Set environment variables with AWS Opsworks

7 Answers7